Hi there,
We are happy to announce the pre-release of a new version of the Bela codebase! There are three major new features:
- IDE: New design, with improved workflow and functionality
- Code libraries: Libraries are pieces of code that can be easily shared across projects. We turned some of the existing Bela C++ examples into libraries (such as Scope, Midi, Udp, OSC), and added some others (like basic DSP libraries, such as ADSR and Biquad).
- GUI: One of the new libraries is for easily making GUIs for your Bela project, using the
p5.js
library (e.g.:
).
The official release will be coming up in October, but at the moment we are looking for Bela enthusiasts to try it out and tell us what they think.
To try out the new Bela code
Follow these steps:
- Download all the projects from your board to make sure they’re backed up.
- Download a zip archive of the
pre-release
branch.
- Unzip the folder
- Ensure your Bela board is connected to your computer by USB.
- In Finder or File Explorer, navigate to Bela/scripts and double click on update_board
- A terminal window will open. When prompted, type Y followed by Enter.
- Wait for the script to complete.
- You should now be able to open the IDE page (make sure you refresh any tab you may have open).
Note that the first time you build a project the IDE will have to re-build the core code and some of the libraries as well, and this will take a couple more minutes. It only has to be done once, though.
Using #include
s
Some Bela classes (such as OSC, Midi, Udp, and Scope) have now been turned into libraries. If your project used some of these Bela classes, you will get a warning when you are building your project. The warning encourages you to update your #include
directive by adding libraries/LibraryName
to the path.
For example, if you used:
#include <Scope.h>
you should now use:
#include <libraries/Scope/Scope.h>
Removed libraries
The OSCClient
and OSCServer
classes had long-standing problems, so we replaced them with OscSender
and OscReceiver
. See the examples Communication/OSC
and Communication/OSC-Pipe
to get a taste of how the new classes work.
Feedback tab
In this early IDE release there is a temporary tab in the side menu for feedback (down at the bottom, with the paper plane icon). Here you’ll find links to two Google forms, one for reporting bugs and one for general feedback. Please note you’ll need to be online to use them.
General feedback
We really want to know what you think of the new IDE! In the feedback tab there is a form for general feedback that will take about 5 minutes to fill out. We want to know a little about your experience and your skills, and your opinions on specific aspects of the IDE as well as anything else you want us to know.
Bug reports
If you encounter problems, something unexpected, or something isn’t right, please report it. We especially would appreciate screenshots. Use the link in the Feedback tab to report the bug, and provide as much detail as possible.
Build errors
If you have an unusual build error (such as "missing symbol" or similar), re-build the project by adding AT=
to the Make parameters
in the Project Settings tab and send us the full log that is produced as a result. Include a copy of your project (which you can download as a zip archive with the dedicated icon in the Project Explorer).
Cleaning the project (using the broom icon in the Project Explorer) will probably resolve this issue. However, we would love to have the precious log data that accompanies these problems so we can examine the underlying issue. You can email it to us at info@bela.io.